St. Anselm Church, Philadelphia recently issued the following announcement. 

Hello All! First, I want to thank all those who assisted in making the Installation Mass possible – especially the members of our social and parish organizations, our maintenance and pastoral staff, our new parish priest Fr Large, and our good and faithful parish deacons, Gerry Whartenby and Dennis Warner. I also wish to thank Bishop Fitzgerald for the honor of being here to install me as the seventh pastor of Saint Anselm Church! 

I am pleased that this day has finally arrived, and we can celebrate (maybe not in a normal fashion) this day for our parish and school communities as we move forward in faith and love towards a bright future, recognizing all that has come before us. In recognizing our past, I want to acknowledge and thank a previous pastor, Msgr. Tom Dunleavy, for all his kindness and advice this past year. His wisdom and experience have helped me greatly! I hope that we may move forward with God’s grace to ensure the stability and spiritual growth of this great parish community!  I am pleased that many of our families have made the decision to return to our wonderful school – as our new sign proclaims – a community of believers, learners, and friends! May this become our motto as we move forward through these challenging times. I thank our returning faculty and staff, especially our principal, Mrs. Murphy, for all their hard work and dedication these past months in preparing for the new methodologies by which we will be teaching and forming our young people in the study of our world and of Jesus our Savior. May the Lord protect our community of learners and friends and may St. Michael the Archangel guard them from all harm! 

Today's Gospel reading directly follows last week's Gospel in which Jesus taught the disciples how to handle disputes and conflict within the Christian community. In today's reading Peter asks Jesus how many times one ought to extend forgiveness to another. Peter proposes a reasonable number of times, perhaps seven. Jesus replies by extending Peter's proposal by an enormous amount; not just seven times should one forgive, but 77 times. The parable of the unforgiving servant is Jesus' elaboration of his initial reply to Peter. Through the parable we come to understand the depths of God's mercy toward us and the results of our acceptance of God's forgiveness. The king in the parable decides to settle accounts with his servants. We are told that one servant owes the king an enormous sum of money. Despite the promise of the servant, it is unlikely that he would ever be able to repay the debt that he owes. The king is moved by the humility of the pleading servant and mercifully forgives the debt. Rather than displaying gratitude for this forgiveness, the servant confronts a fellow servant who owes him a small debt—a pittance when compared with the amount that was owed to the king. The unmerciful servant refuses the pleas of his fellow servant and sends the servant to prison. 

A few other servants tell the merciful king about the actions of the unforgiving servant. The king punishes the servant because he refused to show the kind of mercy he had himself received from the king. Jesus concludes by indicating that this is how it will be with God and those who refuse to forgive one another. There is a temptation to quantify forgiveness as Peter tried to do, but Jesus' point is that forgiveness is not about quantity—the number of times we extend forgiveness to another. In the parable the king's forgiveness is like God's forgiveness, and it transforms us, helping us to be as forgiving as God. The lesson is clear: If we do not share the mercy of God with others, then how can we call ourselves good and faithful followers of Jesus Christ? May the Lord grant us the grace to be forgiving followers, loving and merciful to all those we encounter this week. God bless you and your loved ones! 

+ Father Rossi

Original source can be found here.